In November, Sasha Grey caused a stir after it was discovered that she had volunteered to read to kids at Emerson Elementary in Compton. No matter how poorly our kids are doing academically, how much funding schools have lost, or how much help the National Education Association could use, they refuse to stoop to accepting donations from persons or businesses of ill-repute. … Continue Reading

The Oatmeal has whipped up a selection of cards for that sweet troll in your life. Five bucks gets you one complete with an envelope — with special deals for those who like to plan ahead or have more than one lovely troll to court. … Continue Reading

You’ve seen it. At first, you’re the most beautiful couple in town. Time passes. You get comfortable. You stop using so much product. You stop wearing makeup unless you’re planning to go out. You stop going to yoga. You don’t need to impress one another! You love each other as you are! You are just fine sitting on the couch watching reruns. A few extra pounds here, a few there… more to love! … Continue Reading

In an incisive piece on Salon, adult performer Lorelei Lee writes about her concerns with the condom ordinance that the city of Los Angeles recently passed. Like many in the adult industry, Lee questions the motivation of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which set into motion the events that would culminate in this ordinance. … Continue Reading

It’s hard to say how much revenue the porn industry has lost to free porn tube sites. No matter what they do, they can’t seem to bring their sales back to the levels they saw before these sites made access to porn so easy. Tired of fighting, the adult video production company Pink Visual is joining their ranks.

Sort of. They’re working with other studios in the industry to launch an entirely free, ad-supported streaming site that will bring fans the porn they want while still creating a direct source of revenue for the studios that provided the content. … Continue Reading

Last week, Google’s social network Google Plus (Google+) opened its doors to users 13 years of age and above. In order to prevent minors from accessing adult content that sometimes appears on this blog, our editrix created a Google+ Page to disseminate our posts (you may have noticed the button on the far right column). To illustrate the page, we put up the same image we have on our Facebook page. … Continue Reading

We just got a curious e-mail from Tod Hunter, an adult industry reporter and blogger, saying there have been “reports of Legionnaires’ Disease” at the Luxor in Las Vegas and that people attending AVN’s Adult Entertainment Expo may have been exposed. … Continue Reading

Umar Kahn is a 34-year-old computer technician who likes to drive around late at night. Nothing new there — late at night is the only time Los Angeles is not gridlocked in traffic. It’s probably the least annoying time to be on the road in this town. Unless you run a stop sign, that is.

So you get pulled over. Running a stop sign is not that big a deal when there’s no one else on the road. Maybe the cop will understand, you think as the Glendale officer makes his way up to your car. He knocks on the window. License and registration. You know the drill. The cop shines a light in your face. No biggie. You start explaining. Then the light shifts down to your lap.

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That Steam allows the objectification and sexualization of female characters in a variety of its games but refuses to accept a game about actually engaging with women in a more interactive fashion is astonishingly backward.

That the site doesn’t take measures to protect user content and has shown incompetence or negligence in regard to user privacy, all the while prohibiting victims from warning others about predatory behavior creates an environment where it is nearly impossible for members of the community to take care of themselves and one another. By enabling FetLife to continue espousing a code of silence, allowing the spinning self-created security issues as “attacks,” and not pointing out how disingenuous FetLife statements about safety are, we are allowing our community to become a breeding ground for exploitation.

Should people who benefit (parents, siblings, children, roommates!) from the earnings of “commercial sex acts” (any sexual conduct connected to the giving or receiving of something of value) be charged with human trafficking? Should someone who creates obscene material that is deemed “deviant” be charged as with human trafficking? Should someone who profits from obscene materials be charged with human trafficking? Should people transporting obscene materials be charged with human trafficking? Should a person who engages in sex with someone claiming to be above the age of consent or furnishing a fake ID to this effect be charged with human trafficking? What if I told you the sentences for that kind of conviction were eight, 14 or 20 years in prison, a fine not to exceed $500,000, and life as a registered sex offender?

If you are a woman, you might be given a chance to prove yourself in this community. Since there is no standard definition of what a “geek” is and it will vary from one judge to the next anyway, chances of failing are high (cake and grief counseling will be available after the conclusion of the test!). If you somehow manage to succeed, you’ll be tested again and again by anyone who encounters you until you manage to establish yourself like, say, Felicia Day. But even then, you’ll be questioned. As a woman, your whole existence within the geek community will be nothing but a series of tests — if you’re lucky. If you aren’t lucky, you’ll be harassed and threatened and those within the culture will tacitly agree that you deserve it.

Zak’s original field, it turns out, is economics, a far cry from the hearts and teddy bears we imagine when we consider his nickname. But after performing experiments on generosity, Zak stumbled on the importance of trust in interactions, which led him, rather inevitably, to research about oxytocin. Oxytocin, you might remember, is a hormone that has been linked previously to bonding — between mothers and children primarily, but also between partners. What Zak has done is take the research a step further, arguing in his recent book, The Moral Molecule, that oxytocin plays a role in determining whether we are good or evil.

Let’s talk about the strippers. Whether they like to be half-naked or not, whether they enjoy turning you on or not, there’s one thing they all have in common: they’re working. Whether you think that taking one’s clothes off for money is a great choice of career is really beside the point (is it a possibility for you to make $500 per hour at your job without a law degree? Just asking). These women are providing fantasy, yes, but that is their job. And as a patron of the establishment where they work, you need to treat them like you would anyone else who provides a service to you.

About

Sex and the 405 is what your newspaper would look like if it had a sex section.

Here you’ll find news about the latest research being conducted to figure out what drives desire, passion, and other sex habits; reviews of sex toys, porn and other sexy things; coverage of the latest sex-related news that have our mainstream media's panties up in a bunch; human interest pieces about sex and desire; interviews with people who love sex, or hate sex, or work in sex, or work to enable you to have better sex; opinion pieces that relate to sex and society; and the sex-related side of celebrity gossip. More...